The invention relates to information systems. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and devices used to share peripheral devices between a plurality of clients in a network environment.
Conventionally, in a network environment including a server and a plurality of clients, one of two strategies is usually adopted to provide client workstations with peripheral devices. These peripheral devices typically include peripherals such as printers, scanners, other image capture and projection devices, data storage devices such as floppy drives, CD/CDRW/and/or DVD drives, zip drives, etc. A first option is to provide each client node with a set of peripherals which are located at the workstation computer of the client node. This would include all peripherals that the user(s) of that workstation might need, even if just from time to time. This can be an expensive proposition, especially when considering the waste of resources in providing peripherals that are only occasionally used by each individual user.
The second option is to provide for client users to share peripherals over a network. A local area network (LAN), or other form of network can be configured to allow multiple users access to a peripheral device. This is very common in the case of printers (and plotters), for example. In that example, a LAN card is usually provided at the printer. Typically, this is done by connecting the printer to the network via a dedicated printer connection device that includes a LAN card or other connection logic. With such a dedicated device typically including a LAN card or other network data communication logic, the printer and connection device comprises a network node, and the printer can be used by a plurality of clients on the network.
However, in the case of disk drives, zip drives, CD/CDR/DVD drives, scanners, floppy drives, USB and FireWire hubs with their connected devices, etc., to be shared, conventional practice is to provide a computer (such as a P.C.) at a node, and connect all the desired shared peripherals to this computer. The computer itself may not even be used, except for hosting the attached peripherals. Indeed, sporadic use of the shared peripherals by other persons would likely be distracting to a user attempting to make data processing/computational use of the computer on a continuing basis. What may be even more problematic in some circumstances is that the physical space requirements of using a computer host are much larger than what is actually needed for the peripherals to be connected. In some enterprises, a room, cubicle, or other space, is dedicated to this host computer and the peripherals it supports. Space efficiency represents cost savings, as typically some cost attaches to each square foot of floor space (or each volume unit) within an office or other facility. Therefore this second solution involves not only the cost of the extra computer, but also the cost of providing the footprint of another workstation that is either rarely used or used less profitably because the user of that workstation is subjected to interruptions, typically due to other network users coming there to use the shared peripheral devices at that node.